Today’s guest is Diane Blumenthal, who has been incredibly generous in sharing her own retirement story.   She took the leap into becoming a self-employed consultant after a long and very illustrious career in pharma and biotechnology.   Diane has helped build and transition companies from the startup and research and development phase into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with approved commercial, manufacturing, operations, and products.   She also has extensive experience in the transfer and scale-up of processes from the laboratory bench to commercial-scale manufacturing.   Listen in as Diane shares her journey as a female leader in a male dominated industry, how she planned for retirement and to continue working as a self-employed consultant afterwards, and why she firmly believes that success comes down to being comfortable with being uncomfortable.   Key Topics: Being a female leader in chemical engineering in the 1980s (6:57) Being comfortable with being uncomfortable (13:42) How Diane planned for her retirement (18:22) About stock options (22:41) What factors Diane considered when it came to retirement (26:25) Diane’s first day in retirement (28:29) Why Diane decided to continue doing consulting work in retirement (31:04) The biggest challenge and the best part of being self-employed (35:40) Diane’s three criteria for choosing work today (36:54) Knowing how to price your services (39:43) Diane’s advice to woman considering retirement and how to spend their time afterwards (43:35) “You don’t have to live like a king, but you don’t have to live like a pauper, either.” (46:37) Stephanie and Kevin’s takeaways (51:51)     If you like what you’ve been hearing, we invite you to subscribe on your favorite platform and leave us a review. Tell us what you love about this episode! Or better yet, tell us what you want to hear more of in the future. stephanie@sofiafinancial.com    You can find the transcript and more information about this episode at www.takebackretirement.com.   Follow Stephanie on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.  Follow Kevin on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.